Published By Ashwin

Is there freedom of thoughts?

Recent incidents involving the ransacking of Dinakaran Office in Madurai and arresting of Arts Students raises a question in my mind – Is there freedom of thoughts?

There is chaos in Tamil Nadu at the moment – supposedly triggered by the opinion polls published by the Tamil Daily ‘Dinakaran’ and publicized by the family owned television network ‘Sun TV’. I strongly feel that the media has all the rights to conduct and publish opinion polls as long as it is conducted in a legitimate manner. Intervention of State Government in media’s freedom is definitely condemnable. Ransacking the media office and setting them afire, clearly is a violation of their (media) freedom. Three innocent lives were lost in this family feud. All those who were responsible for this irrational behavior must be identified, irrespective of their political clout and appropriate punishment must be imposed on them. Media is the primary source of information to the public regarding the ins and outs of the politics in the country. Acts like these must be condemned to the core and appropriate action must be taken immediately.

Another incident involves the arrest of Chandra Mohan, the student of an Arts college in Baroda. He was charged of creating a controversial artwork and subsequently hurting the religious sentiments of Hindus and Christians. This whole controversy looks absolutely stupid!! The artwork that has caused all the commotion, was created primarily as an academic artifact and its sole purpose was to be reviewed by the examiners. What this has to do with the public and other religious activists is extremely difficult to understand. In any society, voyeurism is considered illegal and obscene. This entire controversy, involving the private work of students specifically meant for academic purposes, is tantamount to voyeurism. Height of this comes in the form of arresting the concerned student. People who raise their voices against this, must understand the context and put an end to the commotion.

These two incidents clearly shows that India still has a long way to attain the Freedom of thoughts. Unless the religious and political masses understand context of each and every problem and act rationally, issues like these will keep springing often.